O'Connor v South Eastern Regional College

The decision of the tribunal is that the claimant’s claim for sex discrimination is not within time. The tribunal determines that it is just and equitable to grant the statutory extension of time under all of the circumstances.

The first-named respondent was represented by Mr C Hamill, Barrister-at-Law, instructed by Worthingtons, Solicitors.

The second-named respondent was represented by Ms R Lundy, Solicitor, of Arthur Cox & Company, Solicitors.

By claim form dated 9 June 2008 and received by the Office of the Industrial Tribunals and the Fair Employment Tribunal (‘the Office’) on that date, the claimant claimed unlawful sex discrimination against the respondents. By responses respectively received by the Office on 21 July 2008 and 23 July 2008 both respondents contended amongst other matters that the claim was out of time.

The matter was arranged for a Case Management Discussion which proceeded, chaired by the Vice-President of the Tribunals, on 3 November 2008. Amongst other matters, the Vice-President expressed herself to be satisfied that the time-issue in the case was a discrete issue and that it would not be appropriate to deal with that as part of a full hearing. Thus, the matter was directed to proceed to a pre-hearing review and, as a consequence, the matter was listed before this tribunal on following issue:-